The Decoration of Leather Part 7

The present chapter is devoted to some remarks on colour combination and the composition of ornament, based on the personal experience of the author.

Three colours, for the groundwork, ornament and high lights respectively, will, in many cases, be found sufficient for a scheme of decoration. A mult.i.tude of colours, worked in great detail on a relatively small surface, confuse the eye and hinder it from grasping the effect of the decoration as a whole. Only special styles of decoration, such as Moorish geometrical patterns, allow of the use of a great variety of colours. The circ.u.mstance already explained, that in leather decoration dyes may be used one over the other, enables interesting effects to be produced.

A design of sea, with seaweed and fish, can be effectively rendered entirely with sulphate of iron of varying strength. A weak solution is washed evenly over the whole; the waves are then drawn in with a flat brush dipped in a stronger solution, and the dark outlines afterwards bleached with acid where they border the first tint. The fish and seaweed in relief are similarly treated with decolorant, and a light wash of yellow over the whole completes an effective decoration.

The foliage of the chestnut tree in autumn lends itself exceptionally well to decorative treatment, both as regards form and colour. The large variety of greens and yellows are most effective on a ground of brickdust red.

A groundwork of soft grey, brightened by an underwash of very pale yellow, is suitable for reserved or bleached designs. Deep carmine const.i.tutes a rich colour for groundwork, and is produced by using bright red over potash and deepening the effect by rubbing.

In planning a decoration, the artist has generally some special effect in his mind which he wishes to reproduce. It is not unusual, however, for the result to be totally different from what is antic.i.p.ated, since uncertainty const.i.tutes one of the charms of the art of colouring leather. These failures, as they may be considered from one point of view, often produce interesting effects and sometimes lead to valuable discoveries.

Marbled leather should be decorated with flat ornament only.

Figures in high relief belong properly to the domain of the sculptor and should be avoided in leather work, much of its individuality lying in the value of the outline in producing an effect of relief.

Some skilful artists produce in leather not only the relief, but the turned over edges of petals, etc., and treat twisted ribbons in open-work; the result, though pleasing, is essentially evanescent, owing to the extreme fragility of the detached portions of the leather.

Of all the uses to which leather work may be applied, none offer greater scope to the inspiration of the artist than bookbinding. It has become the fas.h.i.+on not only to provide a more or less rich covering for a beautiful edition, but to suggest in its design the nature of the contents of the volume, should these lend themselves to such treatment. The artist, however, will do well to practise this principle with due restraint, avoiding, on the one hand, what may be called anecdotal design, and, on the other, an over subtle symbolism.

Leather coffers, when well executed, const.i.tute veritable works of art.

They present considerable difficulties in the mounting of the leather over the wooden coffer so that the lines of the ornament come exactly in the right place. It is necessary that the lines forming the framework of the design should accurately correspond with the dimensions of the coffer to be covered. A coffer usually consists of a box with a hinged lid; the measure is taken by laying the leather round the whole; the leather is then cut, leaving a small surplus at the edges to be pared and folded over at the sides. The join should be arranged for at the lower border and not at the intersection of the lid and the box. The leather at this point is better left to be cut after it has been stuck on the wood in mounting.

When the leather is decorated in mosaic and consists of panels each enclosed within a patterned border, the probability of its stretching when it is fixed on the wood, must be taken into consideration; Cape morocco, however, if fairly thick will hardly stretch perceptibly.

During the process of outlining the design, which is done before mounting the leather on the wood, it should be stretched to its full extent on a flat board.

When the decoration is in relief, the padding should be very firm, so as to counteract the tendency to stretch during the process of mounting.

Generally speaking, designs based on naturalistic flowers do not give the most satisfactory effects in the decoration of coffers, since the style is not suited to the restricted size of the panels, even when the design ignores them and extends beyond. Designs in the modern style, or Gothic designs in the style of the fifteenth century, or those based on the Arabic decoration of the best period, are much to be preferred; in the last two styles punches used with a hammer will greatly a.s.sist in lowering the groundwork, so that the design stands out in relief without the necessity of stuffing it, as in embossed work. By introducing _gouache_ or bronzes into the impressions made with the punches, rich effects of colour can be produced.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 17. BINDING OF STAINED CALF, CUT, EMBOSSED, TOOLED AND _PATINATED_ BY HENRI G.o.dIN. MODERN FRENCH.]

There are numerous other styles appropriate to the decoration of leather coffers.

In the decoration of large surfaces, such as the panels of wall-hangings, the artist is cautioned against the abuse of detail, frequently the stumbling-block of the beginner. He is recommended to exercise a wise restraint in his composition, and to avail himself of the numerous resources of the conventional art of the modern school more particularly in their application to the ornamentation of large surfaces. Technical efficiency in the use of the tools is essential and must be gained by practice, but may be said to be second in importance to a thorough knowledge of decorative design, which can be attained only by the intelligent study of the best models. The education of the eye is a considerable factor in the conventional interpretation of natural forms.

The artist cannot do better than to study the ancient j.a.panese school, which has found such favour with the initiators of the so-called "Modern Art," and which affords the best examples of balance in design in its rejection of unnecessary detail in the interpretation of natural forms. He may also find inspiration in the fields of Egyptian and a.s.syrian art, in the interlaced patterns of the disciples of St. Dunstan, and in the quaint renderings of leaves and flowers in the hangings and brocades of the Middle Ages.

APPENDIX

LEATHER HANGINGS AND FURNITURE

The origin of the use of decorated leather for hangings and furniture has been the subject of much controversy. After consulting various books on the subject, we believe, as already stated, that its introduction into Spain may be attributed to the Moorish conquerors about the eighth century. In an Arabian ma.n.u.script of the sixth century of the Mohammedan era, mention is made of the industry as flouris.h.i.+ng in the town of Ghadames in the Sahara. Jehan de Garlande, author of a Latin dictionary composed in 1080, mentions _Cordouans_ first manufactured at Cordova in the eleventh century. About the same time, the Monk Theophilus, in his curious encyclopaedia of the arts which unfortunately has not come down to us in its complete form, gives the following description of the processes of gilding leather:--

"For laying on gold or silver, take the clear liquid of white of egg beaten up without water, paint some with a brush over the part which is to receive the gold or silver. Damping the end of the same brush in your mouth, bring it in contact with a corner of the cut leaf (of gold or silver). Then lifting it with extreme rapidity, you lay it on the prepared place and spread it with a dry brush. At this point you must take precautions against a draught, you must hold your breath, for if you breathe you will lose the leaf and find difficulty in recovering it.

When in position and dry you may, if you wish, put a second over it in the same way, and then a third, if it is wanted, so as to be able to give a more brilliant polish with a burnisher.

"You can, if you wish, apply the leaf on a ceiling or a wall; in the same manner, over a lining of tinfoil. If you have neither gold nor silver, you will use tinfoil, which you will apply thus...."[15]

[15] _Theophili Presbyteri et Monachi_, Libri 3 _seu Diversarum artium schedula_. Chapter 24.

Until the middle of the seventeenth century, hangings, and even carpets, of decorated leather formed an important item in those inventories of princely possessions which are such a reliable and inexhaustible source of information for the historian of the sumptuary arts.[16] Princes and other great personages depended largely on decorated leather and tapestries, when moving from place to place, to supplement the often hastily improvised decoration of their temporary apartments.

[16] _Dictionnaire de l'Ameublement et de la Decoration depuis le 13me Siecle jusqu'a nos Jours_, by Henry Havard.

The enumeration of all the different processes by which the leather was ornamented would carry us beyond the limits of this appendix, and we will confine ourselves to tracing in outline the development of the art of working in leather as applied to hangings and furniture during the last few centuries.

First in order of time we find skins covered with hair, sewn together for carpets or hangings; different kinds being placed side by side, either irregularly, or alternately to form a pattern. We are not, however, here concerned with anything but leather proper, that is to say, skins with the hair removed, and this was first decorated by means of a hot tool. The addition of colour speedily followed. Dark coloured leathers were also sewn as borders on lighter ones, and polished metal ornaments were added to brighten the leather groundwork, a fas.h.i.+on borrowed from the method of joining and strengthening the accoutrements of war.

Little by little, as the custom spread of reproducing the human figure and animals, attempts were made to carry out whole pictures on panels made of leather sewn together with the seams hammered flat. But painted leather was still generally of comparatively small dimensions, and it would seem that these pictures were designed chiefly for the ornamentation of chests.

The leather was first stretched over wooden panels, several panels being sometimes placed side by side. A special paste was used, the object of which was to cause the leather to shrink when dry, so as to make the panels adhere more closely together. The following description by the Monk Theophilus of the paste used in his time for this sort of work may interest the reader:--

"Panels for altars or doors are made thus:--First join some boards carefully one by one with the help of the joining tool used by coopers or joiners. They must be fastened together with cheese paste made in the following manner:--Some soft cow's-milk cheese is cut very thin and washed with hot water in a mortar with a pestle, changing the water until it comes out clear. The cheese after being pressed in the hand is put into cold water until it hardens. It is then well crushed with a piece of wood on a smooth wooden table. In this condition it is put back into the mortar to be carefully pounded with the pestle, after having added water mixed with quicklime till it becomes thick like a sediment. Panels put together with this paste when dry, stick so fast that neither damp nor heat can separate them. They must then be made even with a special tool for this purpose. This tool, curved and sharp on the inside, has two handles, so that it may be used with both hands. It is used to level panels, doors and s.h.i.+elds until they are perfectly smooth. They are then covered with untanned mule-skin or ox-hide, after it has been wetted and the hairs sc.r.a.ped off. The water is partly squeezed out, and while still damp it is stuck on with the cheese paste."[17]

[17] _Theophili Presbyteri et Monachi_, Libri 3 _seu Diversarum artium schedula_. Chapter 17.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 18. GOLD-TOOLED AND INLAID MOROCCO BINDING. _THE LETTERS OF PRINCESS LIEVEN._ BY S. T. PRIDEAUX. MODERN ENGLISH.]

In the eleventh century we come to the first employment of gold leaf on decorated leather, whence is derived the name, "or basane," which it afterwards received. The pa.s.sage describing the process of gilding has been quoted already (page 80), but each master of the art no doubt introduced his own modifications.

With the introduction of gold, leather decoration a.s.sumed a magnificence and importance hitherto unknown. The heads of the saints were surrounded with golden haloes, and the gold and silver embroideries of the sacerdotal ornaments were carried out in those metals on the leather. A little later the knights are represented clad in brilliant armour with plumed helmets.

The correct rendering of the heraldic colouring of the coats of arms figuring on s.h.i.+eld and target then necessitated the use of a more extended range of oil colours, until, little by little, decorated leather grew to resemble the paintings of Van Orley.

Meanwhile, punches, cut in relief or in intaglio and used with a hammer, were adopted to break the monotony of the groundwork and throw up the relief of the ornament, and the fas.h.i.+on also arose of embossing leather with a modelling tool or by means of stamps, the latter method necessarily resulting in the subst.i.tution of repeating ornament for figures and landscapes.

Leather manufactured in Spain, Portugal, Flanders, and later in England is almost always decorated in high relief with touches of gold, the design being princ.i.p.ally flowers, foliage, cupids, pomegranates, etc. Venice alone remained faithful to flat decoration with hollowed or merely darkened outline in the cameo-like medallions of cla.s.sical scenes painted on groundwork whose design was borrowed from the gorgeous stuffs of the East.

The fas.h.i.+on imported from Italy in the reign of Francis I of breaking up surfaces with pilasters, cornices, medallions and ornaments in relief, was instrumental in adding importance to small painted designs on leather rather than to hangings properly so called. Some of these leather paintings were like pictures and were used not only for wall decoration, but as hangings for beds and even as bedspreads of state. The custom of thus decorating beds lasted a long time. Pierre Benard, an upholsterer by trade, established in Paris, and author of a collection of songs dedicated to the "Vertueuse Royne Marguerite," first wife of Henri IV, refers to the use of "or basane" in this manner as an evidence of wealth.

Already under Catherine de Medicis, decorated leather had become extremely popular, and was preferred to all other hangings for the embellishment of apartments; its popularity lost nothing under the second wife of Henry IV, in whose native country this style of decoration was also held in great favour. In the reign of Louis XIII the influence of Anne of Austria brought Spanish leather again into fas.h.i.+on. From that time also, leather gilt or stamped in its natural colour and ornamented with copper nails (probably inspired by the marriage chests with their curious studded ornament) was found in the mansions of the great and became the princ.i.p.al material for covering chairs.

The grandiose style of architecture of the time of Louis XIV called for the decoration of s.p.a.ces framed in gorgeous pilasters and was favourable to the application of decorated leather in the style of Berain. But this did not long remain popular, and leather was replaced by Gobelin and other tapestries made in France, whose introduction gave the deathblow to the manufacture of leather hangings.

From this period till the present day the art of gilding leather has been on the decline. Of this no further proof is needed than the following preface written in 1762 by Fougeroux de Boudaroy, who had been commissioned by the Academy to take over the work of research, previously conducted by Reaumur, on the subject of leather hangings:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: 19. BACK AND SEAT OF CHAIR IN CUT, EMBOSSED AND GILT COWHIDE WITH PUNCHED BACKGROUND. EXECUTED BY ROSALIE VIGERS FROM A DESIGN BY FREDERICK VIGERS. MODERN ENGLISH.]

"Flanders, Holland and England are reputed to have furnished the first gilt or silvered leather hangings seen in Paris. Some attribute their invention to Spain, but without apparent reason, since to-day there are in France no such hangings of Spanish manufacture, nor are they much known in that country. The gilt leather hangings which come to us from Flanders are nearly all made at Lille, Brussels, Antwerp and Mechlin; those derived from the last-named place are the most prized of all. Some very fine ones which we have attempted to imitate are made in Venice; manufactures were also started at Lyons and met with success.

"It was only about two centuries ago that this trade was established in Paris. We owe it to some Flemish workmen who settled in the capital and left successors there. But on account of the nation's prejudice in favour of all that comes from abroad, the hangings from Holland and Flanders were always preferred to those of our own manufacture, although they did not surpa.s.s the latter in quality or in beauty.

"Though equalling those of Holland and Flanders, it was not possible to find a sale for our hangings unless they were pa.s.sed off as having been made in one or other of those provinces, and this was frequently done by our manufacturers. It must, however, be admitted that certain gilt leather hangings from England and Venice have never been equalled here. We are forced to allow their superiority in brilliancy, beauty of design and durability. Perhaps all that our workmen needed to be able to imitate them perfectly was to feel the a.s.surance of greater constancy in our tastes, and to witness the cessation of that affection and preference for everything foreign, which might lead to the more favourable treatment of the native industry.

"Gilt leather hangings were at one time much sought after. Their qualities of being, unlike woollen and other materials, unaffected by damp and insects, of retaining their brilliancy unimpaired by time, of not attracting dust, and of allowing it to be easily removed by was.h.i.+ng with a sponge, and finally, of not lending themselves to the multiplication of the insects which in summer infest the capital and which find in other tapestries convenient nests for depositing their eggs, were all advantages, forming so many reasons for their being in demand and gaining for them a place in the apartments of the great, of which they frequently const.i.tuted the ornament. But to-day, a change of taste and the dictates of fas.h.i.+on which outweighs even the advantages and conveniences of life, have caused them to be almost forgotten and relegated them to the ante-rooms of a few county houses where some of the earliest are to be found, nearly as beautiful as when they were first made in Paris.